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The future of business is tied to globalization, product innovation, technology, and human interaction, and inclusive talent is a strong catalyst in positioning companies for success in these dimensions. The understanding of what inclusion really means and how it’s currently being used in the workplace is limited, and the connections between inclusive talent, employee experience, and performance are relatively unexplored or anecdotal. Now is the time to focus on inclusive talent and the practices used to fully engage a global workforce.

Our research explores the creative ways in which organizations are leveraging the collective ideas, perspectives, and input of their inclusive talent to grow the business. Specifically, our research:

Focuses on the meaning of diversity and inclusion, and the disparities in these definitions across different generations

Reveals the powerful connections between diversity and inclusion and overall employee experience, including employee engagement, empowerment and authenticity, and the extent to which diversity impacts these dimensions

Identifies the practices used to build a truly inclusive culture – specifically those that leverage individual’s passion, commitment, and innovation and elevates employee engagement, empowerment, and authenticity

Our research focused on collecting insights and perspectives on diversity and inclusion and their impact on employee experience and performance through a series of surveys collected across global organizations, leadership, and diverse employees with dissimilar generations. Specifically we conducted the following:

This research provides powerful insights, aimed at positively disrupting current inclusion practices and highlighting the inclusion crisis. This paper challenges global leadership to understand the need for improvement and to take action for better performance. Specifically, the research has:

Identified the synergies and disconnects in how diversity and inclusion is defined across generations

Revealed the power of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, through their linkage with employee engagement, empowerment and authenticitys

Uncovered the implications for organizations that want to succeed in the 21st Century Talent War and highlighted the steps to achieving a cognitively diverse organization

As of 2015, millennials encompass a majority of the workforce, over half of them are already managers with decision-making authority and direct reports. Despite this rise in rank for many, their success is overshadowed by the fact that they just do not see the promise of purposeful, values-based careers. They have been disillusioned by the fact that their companies are seemingly devoid or disconnected from the ideals of purpose-driven work, products, and or societal good. As a result, our research has found that millennials are not fully comfortable in their current corporate cultures, and are less engaged and satisfied. With this significant influx of a generation into organizations and into critical roles within organizations, companies are at risk of losing this talent due to cultures that stifle a sense of purpose, values, teaming, ideation, and innovation.

Report 2015

As a result of our shared commitment to moving the needle on inclusion in global business environments, the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative (BJKLI) and Deloitte have joined forces to identify the issues impacting today’s diverse workforce.

‘The Radical Transformation of Diversity and Inclusion: The Millennial Influence’ is the first research report to come from our ground-breaking collaboration.